Monday, 16 March 2015

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

WashingtonThe United States of America

Because every American has an Irish Cousin including the home of the US President

The White House in Washington DC has many connections with Ireland, other than the
numerous Presidents who all appear to claim Irish heritage. The famous home of
the American President was designed by James Hoban, an Irish man. The White
House has undergone many changes since it was built having been burnt in the
early 1800’s and also had to be rebuilt again in the 1950’s when the building
was declared structurally unsound. As a result the house has lost a lot of its original
material but there is something that has survived from its completion in the 1800's, a portrait of George Washington painted by
Gilbert Stuart. Stuart was an artist who spent time in Ireland and who painted numerous
portraits including two paintings from Kilcooley Abbey in Co. Tipperary (see
earlier post on Kilcooley Abbey on this blog from September 2014).

James Hoban featured on a stamp issued in the US in the 1980s

Kilkenny born architect,
James Hoban, immigrated to the United States and had set up practice in
Philadelphia in 1785. The first President of the United States, George
Washington admired the work of the up and coming architect particularly the
Charleston County Court House designed by Hoban. In 1792, Hoban was named the
architect of choice to design the new presidential residence after an
architectural competition. It is said that one of the houses that influenced
the design of the future home of America’s President was Leinster House in
Dublin which does bear a passing resemblance. The original design was a house
with two stories over basement built of sandstone. There was a concern as to
whether there would be enough good quality sandstone available as the Capitol
building was also under construction at this time. Hoban overseen the construction of
the house which had its cornerstone laid on October 13, 1792. The newly built, yet
unfinished, White House was ready for occupancy in November 1800 when its new
resident was the second president of America, John Adams.

When the
first occupant moved in to the house, in some rooms
the plaster was still wet and other rooms were not plastered at all. The
staircase was not installed, and the East Room which was just a shell was used
to dry laundry as it was thought inappropriate to have the Presidents laundry
on public display. The external walls were white washed to seal the porous
sandstone which gave this famous house its name.

Design for the President's house by James Hoban submitted to the architectural competition in 1792.

The front of Leinster House, the seat of the Irish Government, is said to have been the inspiration for The White House in Washington.

In 1745 the foundation stone was laid for the new town house of James FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare. Kildare House – renamed Leinster House in 1766 when the Earl became Duke of Leinster – was designed by Richard Castle as a country house in town.

Charleston County Courthouse in South Carolina was also designed by James Hoban before The White House. The court house was admired by George Washington, the first president of the United States.

The artist, Gilbert
Charles Stewart was born in America in 1755 of Scottish extraction; as a result
of the Revolution he left America in 1775 for England. He developed a
successful career there but was neglectful of his finances and as a result he
fled to Ireland in 1787 to escape prison. He was successful in Ireland and
became a very sought after portrait painter but he continued the tradition of
accumulating debt and returned to the United States in 1794. He left behind him
a number of unfinished paintings in Ireland but was unconcerned by this and was
recorded as saying that ‘The artists of Dublin will get employment in finishing
them’. It was during this time, after his return to America, that he painted
the famous portrait of George Washington. In 1796 he was commissioned to paint a portrait
of George Washington to be given as a gift to the British Prime minister,
William Petty Fitzmaurice who became the first Marquess of Lansdowne. As a
result this portrait of the First American President became known as the
Lansdowne portrait. The US government purchased a copy of this portrait from
Stuart and it was put on display in the White House in Washington from which it
made a miraculous escape.

The full length portrait of George Washington by the artist Gilbert Stuart was rescued from the White House before it was burnt to the ground in 1814.

The White House amazingly had
just stood for over a decade when it was destroyed during a war which began
between the United States and the United Kingdom in 1812. In August 1814, when
British soldiers approached Washington, the President at the time, James
Madison was the custodian of the White House. He had left Washington to join
those confronting the British in Maryland leaving his wife Dolley behind in Washington.
Dolley occupied herself by organising a dinner party however no one accepted an
invite as they were too busy packing up and leaving town in fear of the approaching
British army. Dolley passed her days on the roof of the house scanning the
horizon for the approaching British. Eventually the time came to leave, a
carriage was readied with what items from the vast house that could be carried
and packed into the small wagon. As she was leaving the house, Dolley noticed
the portrait of George Washington by Stuart hanging in the State Dining Room.
There was no time to unscrew the painting from the wall so the picture frame
was broken and the canvas removed. Dolley and the portrait escaped unharmed but
unfortunately the same could not be said for the White House. The British
troops vandalized the house, looted valuables and piled the
furniture in the centre of all the State rooms to be burnt. The house was set
on fire and by the following morning was a blackened shell.

Shown above is the White House ablaze and below are the blackened walls of the Presidential residence after the fire which destroyed its interior and contents.

It was decided that
the house would be rebuilt preserving the exterior walls. Again James Hoban was
called upon and was instructed to make it ‘as it was’ with no further embellishments.
In 1817 after the renovations were completed the Washington portrait by Gilbert
was returned and displayed in the White House. Today the portrait of George
Washington hangs the East Room, a setting for important events but was used as
a laundry when the house was first built. Hoban would return to his Washington commission
on a number of occasions, in 1824 to add the portico to the house and in 1829
to make some further changes. Hoban died two years later in 1831, yet his name
would live on forever because of his association with one of the most famous
residences in the world.

President Barack Obama in the East Room of the White House with the portrait of George Washington which was rescued before the house was burnt in 1814

The Irish Country House Blog - The Houses Known by the Trees

My name is David Hicks and I am the author of 'Irish Country Houses - A Chronicle of Change' published in October 2012 and 'Irish Country Houses - Portraits & Painters' published in October 2014 , both published by Collins Press, Cork. This blog features unpublished articles and photographs assembled from my archive gathered over years of research. I am currently compiling my third book 'Irish Country Houses - Restoration & Redemption'.
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